I think the biggest lies womxn are told back is to shrink our dreams; we’re constantly told about how hard it is to succeed and how many statistics are against us.

One of my clients, M, proved how knowing what you want, embracing it and owning it can transform everything. When we met, she thought her next step should be a promotion at her current company - but she was one of the youngest team members, one of the only womxn and the only one without a university degree. She had a lot of statistics telling her she shouldn’t make the next step.

Through our work together she figured out what she really wanted, a new job opportunity where her manager would be a mentor, and grounded her in how those stories were proof she was the exception to the stats. As soon as she started telling people close to her in her professional network, one of her contacts recruited her. She ended up working with an exceptional leader, and got a $50k pay increase in the process.

On a surface level, your type of intelligence may orient you towards certain roles where you would naturally excel. Your greatest opportunity for growth is from your strengths, not your weakness, so this can also help you know where to focus your personal and professional growth.

Finally, I think it’s also important to appreciate the diversity of intelligence; there is more than one type of intelligence and each person will bring their own to your team, professional relationships and mentorships. This ultimately helps us admire the genius others bring to the table and value our own too.

Oh my goodness I have so many bloopers! Most of them are me stumbling over my own words - but some are me blowing off steam when the camera is rolling - if I feel tired or too serious I commit to 5 seconds of silliness to feel more myself.

The biggest disconnect I see is what an individual thinks is important versus what their boss or company thinks is important. When you initiate a high impact project, validate that it is a problem that your boss, their boss and maybe their boss’s boss has interest in.

Find the intersect of your unique talents and where they intersect with the priorities of the company. Also, focus not on what you are doing or what you did, but why it matters. For example, is your company more profitable because of the initiative? I know this will sound cynical, but businesses think about the bottom line - impact it, and people will take notice.

My absolute favorite band in high school was No Doubt. I was a total Gwennabe (a Gwen Stefani wannabe for anyone who didn’t come of age in the mid 90s, haha). I still know all the words to Tragic Kingdom and my favorite song to run to is still Just A Girl. I think the subconscious impact challenging gender norms had on me led me to where I am.

The reason I love data is that it doesn't lie. We may interpret it differently, but the quantifiable numbers are true. One way to encourage your company to track numbers, like the retention and promotion rates of female and BIPOC employees is to ask for it. It seems absurd to many, but many companies don’t even track this data today.

I will try not to write a novel on this, because this is a phenomenon that I have been researching a lot lately. There are two things that come into play.

First, imposter syndrome strikes men and women equally, and the Dunning Kruger Effect explains it! To summarize, once you surpass a basic level of knowledge in an area or in your role, you begin to know enough to know what you don't know, so your confidence plummets - this is what I call the Imposture Zone. Where you likely know more than most, or at least what you need to, but you don’t have all the answers yet. As you learn more and eventually gain expertise, your confidence recovers and you exit the Imposture Zone.

For womxn specifically, I think the very tightrope we have to walk for career advancement also promotes imposter syndrome. We have so many double-binds and expectations about who we are and how we are at work. For example, you can’t be too nice or you’re a pushover, but you can’t be assertive or you’ll be considered abrasive. Sometimes womxn feel like they have to adopt qualities and personality traits that aren’t quite them, they don't feel authentic. So when they get that uplevel, on a deeper level they feel like impostures because they weren’t rising as their authentic selves. 

My big career dreams right now are to write a book and become a professional speaker. 

I would erase the culture of self-doubt that womxn are socialized to have. It makes us question ourselves and each other, and other people question us. The more womxn realize how much awesomeness they possess, the higher we will all rise.